THE ELECTRICITY COUNCIL - Play Safe (1978)
DESCRIPTION Play Safe '''is a 10-minute public information film broadcast in the UK in 1978. Highlighting the dangers of playing near overhead power lines and electrical substations, sponsored by the Electricity Council. The film is hosted by two animated characters, a wise owl (Brian Wilde) who teaches a young robin (Bernard Cribbins) about electrical dangers and then shows him live-action clips that illustrate the hazards described. The short film opens up with a shot of a football on the ground as the title "PLAY SAFE" appears. The camera then zooms out of the ball as it's kicked by a boy. We then see the boy and his friends having a match of football as clips of a real game inside football stadium appear between shots. "Oh, not bad!" The camera then travels along a tree as we see an animated robin voiced by Bernard Cribbins, watch the boy and his friends play football. "I suppose most boys dream about getting into Wembley... and scoring a goal in the cup final..." We see the boys pick up the ball on the field run home after. The camera then cuts back to the animated robin. "Me? I prefer flying." We then see some shots of a boy flying a model plane. Afterwards we see the robin flying above the model plane. "Now they're trying to compete with us!" We see the boy and his sister control the plane with the remote. Before switching back to the robin who's still flying. "Anything they can do, I can do better!" He starts flying around the screen. It then cuts to a shot of a lake with boats in it. "Who do they think they are? Ducks? They should stick to dry land where they belong." We then see some people doing stunts while skateboarding "Why don't I keep my mouth shut..." "Anyhow they're having a good time, that's all that matters" We then see the robin fly over to a overhead cable. "I must say I like to see kids enjoying themselves" As he sits on the one of the middle overhead cables, we see an owl (voiced by Brian Wilde), waking up to see the robin in between two of the overhead cables. Owl: "You won't live long enough to see anything if you don't get of that wire!" The Robin turns around. Robin: "Who said that?" Owl: "Do you realise you are sitting on a live electric wire?" Robin: "Well, so what? Can't hurt us birds!" Owl: "It will if you touch the wire above it with your wings, you'll get hundreds of volts through you!" The robin dashes away off the wire and onto the tree. Robin: "You were kidding weren't you?" Owl: "No I wasn't... That's why I get worried when I see children playing near pylons. Or overhead powerlines. Or substations" Robin: "yeah well, I'm going to make sure I play safe in future" Owl: "There! You said it!" Robin: "Said what?" Owl: "The golden rule... Play Safe" We see a scene transition where a lightning bolt travels between two lines The scene then cuts to some children cycling down to some overhead cables "These are not telephone wires, these are overhead cables, carrying high voltages. Without them lots of people wouldn't have any electricity. So when you go out to enjoy yourself, play safe and make sure there are no overhead lines about" We see three of the children set up a tent in the middle of a field. Two of them connect one of the poles together and raise it up into the air next to an overhead cable. The other kid spots this and warns them. "Watch out!" The two children lower the pole as the third kid runs over to them and says "Those wires are live!" (phew, that was close...) We then see a boy, fishing near a lake. He pulls his fishing rod away from the lake only to quickly pull it towards him again after noticing an overhead cable. Elsewhere, we see a boy and a girl pull a boat out from a lake. As they do this the boat touches the overhead cable, and electrocutes him causing the overhead cable to explode as girl screams. "If you want to have fun and stay alive, keep away from overhead powerlines, then you know you'll be playing safe." The same scene transition as before briefly plays Robin: "What about the boy with the boat?" Owl: "He was lucky. The electric shock knocked him unconscious but he was alright after a couple of days" Robin: "was he touching a metal part of the dinghy?" Owl: "It doesn't matter. Anything that's wet or has moisture on it can conduct electricity to earth" We see a boy fly a model airplane in a field "That's why you should never fly a kite or a model airplane on a control line near to overhead wires" (scene transition) We then see three kites fly in the air. "When you fly your kite or model plane, remember you're in charge of a flying machine." We see a real airplane take off from the ground as the owl says: "Pilots have to observe safety rules..." It then cuts to two children playing with a kite in a field. "...so must you" "Make sure there are no pylons, overhead lines or electric substations around." The two children then begin to fly the kite up into the air. "Go!" the girl throws the kit up into the air as the boy flies it. Owl: "Control lines, even if made of sting or nylon can conduct electricity. Especially when they're wet." The boy then unknowingly directs the movement of the kite towards a nearby pylon. His sister then shouts "Watch out!" But by that point the kite had already touched the pylon, and fried the boy. His sister scream as he falls to the ground. We then see a flight tower in the reflection of a building as we hear someone talk through a radio: "Delta-0 bravo, you are clear for takeoff" Owl: "Always make sure you're in a clear area when you takeoff, then you'll fly safe and and play safe" (scene transition) We again see the robin and owl on the tree, talking to each other Robin: "You didn't say what happened to the boy" Owl: "He wasn't so lucky..." The robin starts to tear up Robin: "You... mean he...?" Owl: "He was badly burned on the arms and chest but he didn't die." Robin: "Oh, thank goodness for that." Owl: "As I said before, never play near overhead wires... But if you do see your kite going into them, let go before they touch!" Robin: "Yeah, but things like that cost a lot of money! How do you get them back?" Owl: "Whatever you do, don't try to bring them down by throwing things or poking at them with a stick or tugging on the tail or control wires they could be live" We then see an electrician turn off the power of an overhead cable unit and bring down a kite that's stuck on one of the wires "The police will know what to do" A policeman walks out of his car and talks to two children Policeman: "That's a very stupid place to fly a kite" The two children: *In union* "sorry..." Owl: "No trained electrical engineer will be stupid enough to do anything until he cut off the current and earthed the wires. So don't try to be cleverer than the experts." It then cuts back to the two birds, this time without a transition Robin: "well I know I'm never ever gonna perch on another live wire" Owl: "Don't forget there are live wires in substations, too" Robin: "Yeah, what are these substations you keep nattering about?" Owl: "They're places where electricity comes in from the power stations, and is distributed to all the factories and houses nearby. All the equipment here, carries thousands of volts. People don't realise that they don't even have to touch it to get a shock. Electricity can jump gaps, and pass through body to earth" (scene transition) (And now we've arrived at the most infamous part of all) We see a Frisbee fly into an electrical substation and two children outside, one a girl and one a boy named JIMMYYY. Jimmy's sister: "Go on, get it!" Jimmy: "I'm not supposed to go in there." Jimmy's sister: "Oh, go on! there's a gap down there! A gang of kids broke in yesterday, I saw them!" Jimmy tries to squeeze through the gap in the fence. Jimmy: "Pass me that bit of wood" Jimmy bangs the wood on a piece of the fence to make a bigger gap. He squeezes through, runs over to the Frisbee, which is now on top of a piece of electrical equipment. He climbs up the equipment and reaches for the Frisbee, but the electricity jumps from the equipment and zaps him. "JIMMYYYYYYYYY!!!" We then see a radio in someone's kitchen as a news broadcast comes on Newsreader: "A 66,000 volt shock killed a boy today, when he broke into a substation. The electricity board warns children to keep away from substations. Never try to get toys back yourself, otherwise you may not live to play with them again" It then shows the same clip of jimmy getting zapped while his sister screams "JIMMYYYYYYYYY!!!" (scene transition) Robin: "Poor boy..." Owl: "It would have never happened if he kept out" Robin: "...Or if he'd been playing some place safe..." Owl: "Exactly. The trouble is it isn't always the people who do stupid things... who are the victims" (scene transition) We see a Pylon at night, were a group of teenagers are hanging about. They all chant "come on!" to a teenager who's wearing a red jacket and has what looks like to be a chain in his hand. - "Alright, stand back!" He throws the chain up onto a part of the pylon, causing the electricity to surge and cause a power cut. We then see a girl, riding her bike on the dark road, where there are no lights due to the power cut. On the road to the left of her, a car comes speeding along, and doesn't stop because he sees no lights. The car crashes into the girl (even though it looks like the car is stationary and she just falls off her bike in front of it.) Meanwhile, the teenagers run away from the pylon after hearing police sirens, when actuality it's an ambulance taking the girl that was hit by the car to the hospital. The teenager who caused the power cut runs home and when entering the house, he finds his mother talking to a policeman. Policeman: "I'm afraid your little girl was dead when they brought her to the hospital..." Mother: "But she only had the bike two days... It was a... birthday present" Policeman: "Stupid kids, better get my hands on those vandals that cut the power line. They just don't think of the harm they could cause." (scene transition) Robin: "That's terrible! I'd certainly like to get my claws on that boy!" Owl: "He's already learned his lesson" Robin: "Yes, but too late to bring his sister back to life!" Owl: "None of these things I've been talking about would have happened if people realised that electricity is a faithful servant for a dangerous master" We then see a shot of a pylon with a danger sign on it "Remember the danger signs are not put there for fun, they mean what they say" We see a shot of some overhead cables as The Owl says "So keep your eyes open for overhead lines or pylons" It then shows us a previous scene where a boy gets electrocuted while flying his kite. "and don't fly kites or model aircrafts near them either" It then makes a transition to the scene where JIMMYYY gets zapped by some electrical equipment. "And keep away from substations and any electrical equipment that is fenced in" Finally, it cuts back to the scene where the teenager causes a power cut and her sister get ran over. "And don't risk your own life, or other people's by fooling around with electricity" It then cuts back to Owl and Robin on top of the tree "When you have time to kill make sure time doesn't kill you! Then we'll see you around." Robin: "Have fun!" Owl: "...but keep safe..." Both Owl and Robin: "...And play safe!" the camera zooms out of the tree as text on the screen apears that says: '''PLAY SAFE An ANTONY BARRIER Production for THE ELECTRIC SAFETY COUNCIL it then cuts to the credits. (OH MY GOD THAT WAS A LOT TO TYPE) OTHER POINTS Yes, that's right, I needed to include an "other points" column because of how much I wrote... FX: Mainly live action, Robin and Owl however, are animated in 2D CHEESE FACTOR: Lots of things featured in this short film PIF haven't aged very well. For example, the mother of the girl who was ran over by a car didn't show very much emotion when finding out that her daughter died. AVAILABILITY (FULL 10 MINUTE VERSION): Rare, seen on a few YouTube channels. AVAILABILITY (INDIVIDUAL PARTS): Uncommon, can be seen on a few YouTube channels SCARE FACTOR: This really depends... For the full thing, I'd have to say Medium to High. the scenes can be upsetting to a younger audience. In fact, the scene with JIMMYYY alone deserves to be high on the scare factor because of all the effects used in it. However, some scenes look like they haven't aged very well, such as the scene with the teenager's mother. Category:PIFs Category:Short Film PIFs Category:1970's PIFs Category:PUBLIC INFORMATION FILMS MADE BY THE COI Category:Electricity PIFs Category:1978